Burial spaces in North Lanarkshire could be used up within nine years if action not taken, council hears

A report detailing efforts to increase the amount of burial space in North Lanarkshire has been approved by councillors.

Forecasts show that, with the exceptions of the new cemetery at Pather Farm in Wishaw and Eastfield and Cambusnethan Muslim burial areas, space available for burials is likely to be fully used within nine years.

With cemetery construction averaging over seven years ongoing development of sites is important. The Pather Farm project, which began development in 2019, is expected to provide new burial lairs in early 2026.

Initially the new cemetery will provide 1,051 new lairs with another 2,000 intended to become available in a second phase.

At Coltswood Cemetery in Coatbridge the first phase of work to provide new lairs at the existing cemetery was completed in May this year, providing 287 new lairs at a cost of over £150,000. This will extend the time before it runs out by around two years.

Extension works to a previously undeveloped area of the cemetery and the Muslim burial area also completed construction earlier this summer, with 222 standard lairs and 150 Muslim ones provided at a cost of just under £100,000. These are expected to delay runout times by more than two years and ten years respectively, although there is very little space for further extension so no future works at this site are currently planned.

Upcoming projects are the Phase 1 extension using underused landscaped land at Coltswood, providing 537 new lairs at an estimated cost of around £350,000 while surveys and preliminary design work have been carried out on the New Monklands expansion. In the coming years this project will create around 1,000 lairs.

Investigations are also ongoing to determine whether sites in Coatbridge, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth are viable for cemeteries.

The council is also preparing to run a public consultation next year to further inform its future strategy for cemeteries, covering such topics as maintenance, types of plot and feelings about larger cemeteries versus a more localised approach.